That could not be further from my position. I’d prefer marijuana be largely decriminalized for personal use, not simply legalized. I’d prefer that we have universal healthcare and that Regan’s war on drugs be officially over with, with appropriate medical research be started for relevant substances and harm reduction policies enacted for public health.

@Mouselemming points out that as soon as the “fun” part is separated from the pain suppressant part, the latter will get insurance support and the former will be left on the cutting floor of history, due to market pressures.

@chonglibloodsport suggests we don’t let “the bosses” make this decision - as if it’s going to be a vote or something similar and not the wheels of capitalism doing it’s thing. People won’t get a choice about how bosses exert influence on this.

Nobody wants the bosses to be making these decisions, it ought to be in the hands of the people with guidance of medical professionals and the backing of science. But pretending like meddling isn’t exactly what corpos are gonna do is kinda naïve, in my opinion.

If you think there’s some other takeaway I’m missing, I’m open to contrasting opinions.

First time dealing with late stage capitalism?

Whom precisely do you think wants that decision in their bosses hands?

Price fixing is a form of collusion, and it’s a crime - even if the sellers can claim they didn’t all sit down in a room together.

Phoenix apartments had an inflated housing market that was caused by price fixing. The property management used software to set rental prices, and the terms of service required them to use the prices suggested. None of the managers individually spoke to each other, but the software algorithmically inflated rent based on what other properties could get away with charging.

https://www.azag.gov/press-release/arizona-attorney-general-announces-1-million-settlement-weidner-property-management

I happen to have seen that one before. It’s very layered … like an onion.

Yes! But I’m definitely an oddball. I also read the terms of serving refuse to use services that have terms I disagree with.

With a mature helicopter they could fly to Chile!

Imagine how scarring it would be to look in a “smart mirror” and have it automatically censor your own body.

This is of course, aside from the million reasons I don’t trust the government when they talk about “for the children” …

NIMBY in action (but far more palatable than usual)

I see your point and it pleases me. Let’s upvote it so it will be seen more by others like me.

But to post a controversial opinion - I believe the internet is a giant confirmation bias machine.

I disagree with your conclusion as it applies here - but I appreciate the argument. (And upvoted, as it adds to the discussion). I think between these two nations one is the underdog and more in touch with people and reality.

That said, Zelinsky is absolutely a charismatic political leader and it’s healthy to critically analyze anything you hear from such sources. In this case, the statement is definitely a bit bravado nicely coupled with reassurance to their people. I do also believe it tracks with what’s publicly available on the warfront. Nonetheless, the interpretation is clearly biased (to make their own side look good).

Thank you for your thoughts. I also see you’re getting downvoted by the echo chamber. I appreciate it, at least.

I prefer the term Computer Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence or Synthetic Intelligence. It grounds the term in the computational logic of a math rock, and allows the intelligence not be a ‘pass/fail’, but rather what scales to what’s been discovered.

It covers modern LLMs, but also includes classic fuzzy logic, probabilistic calculations, Bayesian networks, etc.

Really itching to try that golden goose recipe.

Both?

It genuinely hurts my soul that this is a complete argument.

The idea that users could or should have preferences - to be responsible to opt (in or out) in any capacity is an unreachable goal.

It’s frustrating that a lazy or evil developer can so easily convinve the masses to give up privacy simply by dangling a shiny just outside the default security safeguards.

I’m already drooling at the prospect of them repackaging it and selling it back to us. “After acquiring contractual control of the electrical grid and pushing several security updates, we bring you e-power, an NFT driven energy packet exchange market. Now in partnership with DraftKings™.”

I’m comfortable with boot having a either a plaintext key or two key halves to XOR together, used to unlock the base OS. I honestly don’t trust a TPM to store this, and as long as the OS is designed to guard the key from all but root, I don’t see any security issue.

ICANN says thanks, but that one is theirs, and they are also happy to let people register whatever they want (but for say … $227K a pop)

I did a web search:

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025

According to this site, China is in a four-way tie ranked 76 of 181 countries measured in terms of corruption (lower is better). It scored 43 of 100 on their “Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)” (higher is better).

I think the parent post has merit, as China is notably more corrupt than many similarly sized western world countries. (But my afternoon web search is far from authoritative or definitive).

I, by coincidence, am also actively campaigning for Linux.

You should try it. It has a lot of issues and problems - but far less than you think, more importantly far fewer of it’s problems come from enshitification (software forking helps resist that), and most importantly, since many projects are community-driven the more people use it the better it’s likely to get.

The summaries are not real quotes, obviously, and is obviously selected to emphasise the shifting nature of the administration’s position … but yeah, I would say it’s broadly actuate.